OLDS — The town saw more than four times as many housing starts last year than it did in 2023, Town of Olds' infrastructure director Adrian Pedro says.
A total of 130 housing starts were undertaken in 2024, compared to 29 in 2023.
Building permits for 20 single-family homes were issued last year, up from 14 the year before.
The biggest change though was in multi-unit housing structures. Seventeen permits for those buildings featuring a total of 96 housing units were issued last year, compared to one permit issued in 2023 for a building with two units.
“Obviously the stark contrast there, 130 housing starts in 2024 versus 29 in 2023,” Pedro said.
“Now, of course, there are some larger building permits baked into this, these equations, but it is noticeable increase, which is nice.”
Two permits were issued for industrial projects, the same number as last year.
Five permits were issued for projects in the institutional category, worth a total of $1,368,000. In 2023, four permits were issued for projects in that category, worth a total of $153,000.
There was also an increase in development permits issued. Those permits are required for any change in land use or zoning and are generally an initial step toward obtaining a building permit.
Last year, the town issued 173 development permits for projects worth a total of $44,597,896.18, up from 138 worth a total of $14,006,185.04 in 2023.
“Again, there are larger projects that are adding to this valuation. However, I think we're moving in right direction for both building permits and development permits,” Pedro said.
He said the town’s development department has become way more efficient, cutting processing times for projects by about 50 per cent, compared to the first six months of the year.
It now takes an average of 11.5 days to have a permit approved. It still takes 22.8 days for projects that have to go before council to receive approval.
“All in all, a lot of credit to the team, there's a much-needed increase in efficiency there, so I think we're doing very well,” Pedro said.
Coun. Darren Wilson said while he was “bench pressing my 10 pounds” in the Community Learning Campus gym, a person came up to him complaining about how long it took to get developments approved in the town – as long as 90 days previously. As a result, developers would take their projects elsewhere.
Coun. Wanda Blatz conceded that it still takes longer to get approval from council for projects that have to go that route, but she suggested that process is still quicker than the old one where projects would go through the Municipal Planning Commission, because it only met once a month.
Pedro agreed.
“Oh, absolutely, yeah, just having the option of two meetings versus one meeting certainly helps,” he said.
Coun. Heather Ryan asked if the longer approval time for projects that have to come to council is due to the fact that council generally only meets twice a month or the fact that many of those projects must be advertised for two weeks.
Pedro said it’s a combination of the two. Also, there can be other factors.
“If there's more nuance to the application, we need to go back and forth with the applicant, and then we need to prepare the submission and circulate and then bring it to council,” he said.
Mayor Judy Dahl suggested downtime for Christmas and vacations, might account for the lag.
“No, I don't think so,” Pedro said. “I think it's mostly internal processing times have picked up.”
Coun. James Cummings asked if there’s a way for the town to track a project from the time it comes up for consideration to the point when its housing units are available for occupation. That process can take years.
Chief administrative officer Brent Williams said town charts could be amended to include ‘closure of building permits’ but overall, he said, the question is “not something I think we can answer to accurately at this time.”
